I made a generous new friend recently thanks to my post of different versions of By The Time I Get To Phoenix. He claimed that I had left off the best cover, by country singer Roy Drusky, and sent me that version. You”ll decide where it ranks in the hierarchy of Phoenix covers. Shortly after, I posted Volume 5 of the Answer Records, and my new friend Rick had a related song: Wanda Jackson”s answer to By The Time I Get To Phoenix. Besides that, we”ll have Muddy Waters” mojo set straight, and Miss Chuckle Cherry”s response to Chuck Berry”s disturbing anthem to wanking.
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By the time he”ll get to Tulsa she”ll be banging
Act 1: Roy Drusky ““ By The Time I Get To Phoenix (1968).mp3
You know the set-up: dude decides to leave town and counts down what he imagines his freshly abandoned woman will be up to when he reaches geographical milestones (the trip is chronologically impossible, but let”s not get waylaid by that). So by the time he crosses the city limits of Phoenix, she”ll be getting up; when he gets to Albuquerque, she”ll be taking her lunch break and try to phone him (the phone will keep ringing, because cellphones are yet to be invented), and when he gets to Oklahoma she”ll be sleeping. With astonishing conceit, our friends imagines his ex-girl crying “just to think I”d really leave her”. Does she?
Act 2: Wanda Jackson – By The Time You Get To Phoenix (1967).mp3
Our friend was quite right: by the time he got to Phoenix, she was rising. She found the note and wasn”t really that surprised because he”d been babbling on about leaving for quite some time (and, yes, she did notice). Wanda fails to fall to pieces and proceeds to go to her 9 to 5 job. Will she call our hero, as he thinks she would? Not exactly: “And at lunch I gave your best friend a call. He told me that he”d love me for so long now, he”s been waiting for you to leave, that”s all.” We are not given time to reflect on a man”s life so bereft of meaningful relationships that his best friend is just waiting, fingers tapping impatiently, for him to disappear so as to move in on his girl. Wanda will get laid tonight, at about the time our hero reaches Oklahoma, where in Wanda”s prediction he”ll realise what a mistake he made: “You”ll cry and you”ll whisper I”m sorry, but it”s too late “cause I”d found a love that”s true.”
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Blame it on the mojo
Act 1: Muddy Waters ““ I Got My Mojo Working (1957).mp3
Muddy is a man of remarkable confidence as a laydees man, thanks to the titular mojo which seems to be working for him in general. Except, inexplicably, on the woman whom he is addressing with this song. “Got my mojo working, but it just won”t work on you,” he announces right at the song”s start. It seems to stump our friend: “I wanna love you so bad till I don”t know what to do.” He believes he might acquire some higher octane mojo in Louisiana, whence he shall decamp forthwith to obtain the necessary means to meet his single obsession: “I”m gonna have all you women right here at my command”, including her on whom his standard mojo cannot be fruitfully applied. I believe one Eldrick T Woods might empathise with poor Muddy.
Act 2: Ann Cole – I’ve Got Nothing Working (1958).mp3
Ann Cole, whom we previously encountered in the inaugural Answer Records (she didn”t want to stop the wedding), is having none of that New Orleans voodoo crap. Not that she hasn”t tried it; in fact, she sang about it in the very same terms as Waters on her 1957 record (and therefore is actually responding to herself, but let”s not have the facts spoil our fun). The black cat bones obviously didn”t work, and she was “crazy to think that they would”. So now to Plan B: “I”ve got nothing working now but my real old-fashioned love.” Yup, Muddy, you need no black magic aphrodisiac Rohypnol mojo shit, but nothing more than some human emotion and sincerity (or at least the requisite charm to compensate for these qualities should they be absent). So Ann is waiting to lay her big love on you, because “it”s just you that I”m thinking of”.
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Let”s keep it clean, kids
Act 1: Chuck Berry ““ My Ding-A-Ling (1972).mp3
One day I”ll feature this awful song in the Originals series, because it does have an interesting story going back to 1952. For our purposes here, we have creepy Chuck “” he of candid cameras and watersports fetishes “” punning about his no doubt impressive penis which nevertheless did not excite British morality campaigner Mary Whitehouse in any other way but self-righteous outrage. “My Ding-A-Ling, my Ding-A-Ling, I want you to play with my Ding-A-Ling” et cetera, and then the final admonition that those who won”t sing along to this idiotic song must be as big wankers as he is. I can”t see much cause for embarking on a frenzied wank at the sight of grizzled old Chuck singing about his dick, but I grant that I may be unique in that.
Act2: Miss Chuckle Cherry – My Pussycat (1972).mp3
Surveying the answer song”s title and the artist”s name (which possibly is not even be her real name), one may have reasonable doubt as to the requisite serious manner in which Mr Berry”s hymn to onanism will be responded to. It will furthermore serve to surprise that this record is of negligible musical eminence. Moreover, Ms Cherry”s vocal qualities would not suggest that her candidacy for a residency at La Scala (the opera house, not the pizza joint down the road) will be seriously entertained. And the lyrics, astonishingly, are not entirely of an edifying nature. “Now it”s time for our classroom song, and I want all your girls to sing along. No fellas now, only girls.” And the subject matter the female contingent of the classroom is asked to intone about concerns…oh, you know what extravaganza of punnery we shall enjoy, with the uncomfortable tinge of paedophilia when the grandfather describes the texture of Miss Chuckle”s pussycat (which we presume to be feline, not genital), and a startling reference to a pain in the butt. Spoiler alert: it seems that Chuck was not allowed to play with Miss Chuckle”s kitty.
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More answer records
Ilene Woods, 81, American singer and actress, on Juy 1
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